Roosevelt, Vanderbilt and Culinary Institute

View from Raccoon Saloon

Before we continue  our mansion tour, I want to mention a cool restaurant in Marlboro we visited, The Raccoon Saloon. Like many local restaurants this one uses food elements sourced locally. It was quite good and had an amazing view.

Kissing a raccoon?

Bridge to Poughkeepsie

I particularly liked the photo of the old owner kissing a raccoon. Can't get enough of that good stuff!!

Next morning we left our base at West Shore Marina in Marlboro heading north. We left early for the Roosevelt compound in Hyde Park. Every few miles from Tarrytown north on the east side is another estate. We can see some from the river.

The Roosevelt’s are some of the original NY batch of settlers. They have quite a pedigree. 

Eleanor and Franklin were cousins. Eleanor was from the more down on the hells side with a really old DAR background from the Livingston’s of NY, signers of the Declaration of Independence. She had a tough life early on. Her mom died when she was young and her alcoholic dad died when she as about 10. Then she went to live with her stern and very Puritanical grandmother. When she was 14 she went to boarding school in England. She said this was the beginning of her life with friends and mentors.

She returned to NY at 18 for her coming out into society. At her coming out ball she was reintroduced to her cousin Franklin, two years older. They fell in love immediately.

Franklin was born the only child of Sara and James. He was a 10 pound baby and Sara was a little woman. She decided this would be her only child. She doted on Franklin even taking an apartment in Cambridge while Franklin attended Harvard. Franklin was an avid sailor. They guide told us he loved sailing at an early age. Even at 8 years old they had to keep an eye on him or he would sail alone to NYC.

Franklin and Eleanor wanted to marry right away. Sara wasn’t keen on her little boy marrying anyone at all much less down-in-the-heels Eleanor. Sara’s view changed when Eleanor’s Uncle Teddy (Roosevelt) became President. Then it was ok! Uncle Teddy walked Eleanor down the aisle in a simple NY ceremony between political stops after the election. He was a busy guy.

Kermit walking to our first stop of the
day - Val-Kill

Sara, never inclined to give up her precious baby boy, said as long as the kids were 21 and 19 and not ready to set up household yet why not come live with her in the big house for a while. So they did. Franklin and Eleanor lived in Sara Roosevelt’s home until Sara died some 40 years later!

Val-Kill creek

I tell you this to explain why Eleanor and Franklin had two homes. Eleanor needed to get away from Sara. Even though E and F had five children, successively more responsible political roles, and eventually President of the USA, Sara held the purse strings and made all the household decisions, big and small. Eleanor needed at least a little me-time.

Cool visitors center run by the national forest service

Val-Kill

Going into Val-Kill

So Franklin convinced Sara it was in everyone’s best interests to build Eleanor a little house of her own, like a playhouse. Franklin never stayed there although he visited Val-Kill often. Eleanor had lots of women friends, very very close women friends (wink-wink!). Some lived at Val-Kill permanently. One close friend lived next to Eleanor in the White House. Val-Kill was necessary.

Franklin designed these two little homes himself. He fancied himself something on an architect.

The living room set up for dinner

Eleanor was originally very shy. When Franklin contracted polio in his 40s, he trained Eleanor to be his legs, go where he couldn’t go, and report back to him what she saw. When Franklin was President she evidently didn’t need much sleep so she was always working.

The dining room

I do what I think is a lot of writing. I write this blog, I write a blog twice a week for my business and between clients and boat stops I write books. But Eleanor wrote a newspaper column every day for years. Can you imagine? I would like to read this book. I am reading a wonderful book about E&F in the lead up to WWII that really illustrated E and F’s relationship. It was a true partnership.

After Franklin’s death, Eleanor lived permanently at Val-Kill. It is quite small with 2 bedrooms upstairs and 1 bedroom suite for her close friend and secretary attached to the main house. She entertained really famous people here like the King and Queen of England and their kids, Elizabeth and Margaret, Nelson Mandela, and other folks.

File footage of Eleanor meeting with JFK before the election

In 1960, Eleanor backed Adlai Stevenson for President but JF Kennedy won the nomination. JFK came to Val-Kill for lunch one day for a private conversation with Eleanor. Without Eleanor he could not win the election. Eleanor was that powerful and popular among American voters. Eleanor extracted a promise that JFK would be more open to pursuing civil rights. He was but LBJ finally got the laws passed.

Roosevelt home

FDR’s place (actually Sara Roosevelt’s place) is just 2 miles up the road, probably less on internal roads. FDR had the first Presidential Library built on this property. He designed it himself. These folks had some kind of energy. Wow.

The entry way where those cartoons
of the King are still located

Statue of FDR seated
from his 20s

There is a neat statue made of FDR when he was in this 20s that depicts him seated and does not show his legs. It is kind of a creepy reminder that almost 20 years later FDR got polio and lost complete use of his lower body.

Someone else's photo of the
luggage elevator - our photo did
not turn out

FDR trained himself to compensate with is upper body. He would hoist himself up the luggage elevator (everyone has a luggage elevator in their homes, don’t they?) hand over hand to get to the 2^nd floor landing then haul himself up the last 4 steps by a railing to the second floor to his bedroom. I can’t even imagine. People say he had huge muscled upper body with tiny withered legs.

The living room - it looks so comfortable

FDR entertained famous people in this home too. The press was here often so there are no visible ramps.

Eleanor's stufy

The guide tells a story about one time E and F entertained the King and Queen of England. Sara told Franklin to take down his collection of political comics about the King from the front hall (they are still on the wall) but FDR didn’t want to so he “forgot”. The King walked in and looked around. He spotted the comics and read every one. The hall was silent. Then he turned to franklin and said, “I see you have some I don’t have in my collection.” And everyone laughed! Thank goodness.

FDR's office

FDR turned the house over to the federal government upon his death. Eleanor moved out immediately to Val-Kill. The kids were all grown. So the house looks exactly like it did when Roosevelt’s lived there. It is spacious with a warm lived-in look.

Eleanor and Franklin graves

We toured the FDR library a little too. Kermit takes a purely Republican view that government should not have stepped in to help during the Depression or during the recent crisis. I take the opposite view. He had just finished saying that rich people, churches, and charities would step in to solve the problem when we stepped into a display that explained why that option was impossible. It was nice to have someone else point this out to him!

Sculpture with pieces of Berlin Wall

Eleanor and Franklin are buried at the library. They were great friends of Winston Churchill so there is a statue or two of Winston here plus a neat sculpture made out of pieces of the Berlin Wall representing FDRs involvement in the end of WWII.

Young Franklin

Old Franklin

European craftsman made this stuff

Vanderbilt mansion

We left for the Vanderbilt mansion 1 mile away. There were lots of Vanderbilt kids and grandkids. Each inherited a little bit (relatively speaking). Anderson Cooper is a Vanderbilt for example. This mansion was built by Frederick W. Vanderbilt for his wife Louise after visiting his brother’s place in North Carolina, Biltmore. This place is not a fraction the size of Biltmore but it is a classic example of Beaux-Arts architecture popular during the 1890s. 

Men's room for after dinner

No flash allowed inside so many of Kermit's photos turned out really shaky. Trust me. It was decadent. 

  

Music room

A ceiling

It is in stark contrast to the Roosevelt and Rockefeller homes built at about the same time. Those two mansions were modest in comparison, just like the guide at Rockefeller’s home said. This is a monstrosity of marble and expensive furnishings. And it was only used as a vacation home for a month in the summer!

Entry way

This is a real Ming vase used for a planter

Vanderbilt mansion in Hyde Park

Frederick Vanderbilt fell in love with the divorced wife of his cousin who was 12 years older. Papa was furious when the two eloped and he cut the son out of his will. Well actually each of the other sons got $60 million and Frederick only got $10 million. That will show him. Well, the other sons worked hard to spend their money. Frederick worked hard at the family business, the New York Central Railroad. He was also a shrewd investor. He multiplied his money and his brothers died with much less.

Ladies lounge

Mrs. Vanderbilt decreed that married couples slept in separate bedrooms and unmarried men slept in a separate building, now the visitor center. 

Mrs. Vanderbilt's bedroom -
looks just like Versailles

Back stairs at Vanderbilt's

There is a story the Eleanor Roosevelt came to visit for a weekend and was assigned to the rose bedroom. Mrs. V asked if she brought a pink nightgown. Eleanor wasn’t sure. Mrs. V said no problem; there are 5 pink nightgowns in the closet. Each room was a different color and had matching china and night clothes and sheets that were different from any other room. Weird! Evidently Eleanor thought so too and she didn't come back. 

After Frederick and Louisa died, FDR who lived next door convinced her to donate the home to the National Park Service so she did. The Secret Service housed agents in the servants quarters while FDR was president. 

At this point Kermit and I are a little mansioned out. It was 3:30pm and we had seen 3 homes and a Presidential Library. Room for 1 more? Sure.

Culinary Institute

The yellow building is one of the
four restaurants on premises
staffed by students

So we went to the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park. I really wanted to go on this tour. We had a cute little guide named Megan or some such cute little name. She is studying restaurant management and is a chef. All the kitchens have windows to the hall so visitors can watch. If the students we saw are any example, there will soon be more women chefs than men.

 Other observations:

• It smelled really good
• It takes a lot of discipline, long hours, and hard work to get through this program.
• Most students receive an associate’s degree knowing they can get a BA later if they want to come back.
• There is a certain way of cutting and setting up a kitchen – the CI way. It puts control into a busy commercial kitchen.

Thinking back on a visit to Michael Simon’s restaurant in Cleveland, it was very disciplined and orderly. It was so controlled that few words were necessary.

Live at the Falcon is built into
the side of the mountain

It has a great view of a little waterfall

The guys who run it

Katherine with Bucky Pizzarelli

We were exhausted but we had one thing left to do in this area. Live at the Falcon is another one of those NY hippy dippy places. There are no tickets; you pay what you want to see top name blues and jazz talent. 

We saw Bucky Pizzarelli play jazz guitar! Don't let his handsome smile fool you. The guy made a pass at me!! While Kermit took the picture!!

The place has original art on the wall from some famous artist was visited the previous week. Pretty cool!

Filled with art and music

Dinner was bad but the music and environment was great. So definitely worth a stop for drinks and music.

Next: return the car and head on up the road to Albany